As this year marks 30 years of Sailor Moon goodness, a special livestream will be held to commemorate the event, along with details on other collaborations.
It has been 30 years since Usagi/Serena and her Sailor Senshi/Scouts first got together to fight the dark evil forces and Queen Beryl on TV. To mark this occasion, the series will be hosting a livestream special on their official YouTube channel with Sailor Moon herself, Kotono Mitsuishi, and Sailor Moon Crystal’s Sailor Venus, Shizuka Ito. The livestream will be held on Thursday, April 28, around 8 PM JST.
The special was said to take a trip down memory lane of 30 years for the franchise that mangaka, Naoko Takeuchi, created from the manga to the TV anime series and films, stage plays and more forms featuring the Sailor Scouts. Big Pokémon fan, cat-lover and voice actress, Shoko Nakagawa and well-known Japanese composer, Hyadain, were also said to join the program.
A YouTube video posted earlier in the year revealed that after the success of Pretty Guardians Sailor Moon Eternal The Movie that was released last year, various Sailor Moon characters would have upcoming collaborations in merchandising and a limited-time museum would showcase the history of Sailor Moon. Some of these collaborations announced were with Sanrio (notable for Hello Kitty merch), My Melody, Cinnamoroll, Kuromi, Marron Cream, Pompompurin, Premico, the watch maker, wicca, women’s accessory store, Maison de FLEUR, clothing brand, UNIQLO, and the luxury fashion brand,s Anna Sui and Samantha Thavasa.
The special VR video called “VR Dream/Flight” was inspired by the latest film and began streaming in January and recently came down last week from streaming on the Viveport VR app store. However, those visiting Japan could go through the Sailor Moon experience with the “Pretty Guardians Sailor Moon The Miracle 4-D ~Moon Palace Chapter Deluxe~” attraction that started on March 4 at Universal Studios Japan. Last year, the Niagara Falls Comic Con had the reunion of the English voice cast for the Sailor Scouts and may make an appearance this year again.
The first episode of Sailor Moon aired on Saturday, March 7, 1992, but it was not until about 1999 or the early 2000s that I grew up watching the series on TV every day after school. I remembered the first time Usagi transformed into Sailor Moon for the first time and thinking how it seemed lame and was ‘such a girls’ show (yes, that was three- or four-year-old me not knowing the show was an anime, being sexist and not appreciating art).
While I eventually grew inspired by all the Sailor Scouts, Tuxedo Mask was always there as one of the only male figures in the show who acted as a suave masked man who throws down roses on the floor and inspired Usagi to overcome Queen Beryl and the Dark Kingdom creatures with his random speeches. As an adult, I realized that all the female characters were the strong ones with superpowers and the male characters served as side characters with little to no powers, breaking stereotypical norms at the time—that is what was cool about Sailor Moon, it stood for so much more than just a young adult/teen show.
Sailor Moon meant so much to me that I even cosplayed as Tuxedo Mask at my high school prom. Did I get bullied? Hell no, because I was dapper AF. This was also the first time I cosplayed as any character for Toronto’s conventions, Anime North and Fan Expo. The franchise will always hold a special place in my heart and the chibi Tuxedo Mask hanging on my car’s dashboard will always remind me of it. That is how I learned to fight evil by moonlight.
